Electoral College in Plain English

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Transcript of Electoral College in Plain English

The Elctoral College in Plain English Why an Electoral College? Decided they wanted to avoid election by popular vote. The framers of the constitution... Did not trust the common voter to make the right decision. So technically the electors elect the president, not the people. So...How does it work? The Electoral College is Established in the Constitution: Check out this link to Amendment 12 - http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am12.html Currently includes 538 members: 1 for each Senator, 1 for each Representative, and 3 for the Distric of Columbia 2 senators from each state + Number of members in the House of Representativs + Subject to change with population count bases on census every 10 years! 3 from Washington, D.C. Or 100 Senators + 435 House of Representative Seats + 3 Washington, D.C. = 538 Larger Population States (California) = More Electors Smaller Population States (North Dakota) = Less Electors So how many Electoral Votes does the President need to win... The magic Number is...Wait for it... How does the President get Electoral Votes? The people vote for the candidate they choose in their respective states. The candidate who wins the majority vote in any given state wins that states electoral votes. This is known as a winner take all system. So for example in the past election President Obama won the state of Pennsylvania, therefore he recieved all 21 electoral votes! (19 Representatives and 2 Senators) Check out the Breakdown from the 2008 Election Maine and Nebraska are the Exception Still Confused? Check out this video! Think of it this way... 270 There you have it...Make sure you get out and vote! http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID19027/images/300px-Scene_at_the_Signing_of_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States.png&imgrefurl= By the end of this presentation you will be able to explain how the Electoral College works.